Lateefah Simon: “After reading the article, I asked for a copy of the OECD report, and it is a somewhat technical but important insight…”

“After reading the article, I asked for a copy of the OECD report, and it is a somewhat technical but important insight into our deficiencies. Let me give a few quotes from the report: A perplexing feature of the US development assistance effort is that while public opinion responds readily to situations of acute needs in developing countries (contributions to private voluntary agencies are among the highest per capita among DAC Members), there is no strong public support for the Federal aid budget. This may be explained in part by the fact that the public greatly overestimates the share of foreign assistance in the US Federal budget. According to a recent poll, the majority of respondents believe it to be around 20 percent of total US Government spending. In fact, USAID spending represents only 0.5 percent of the Federal budget and the US has the lowest ODA/GNP ratio among DAC Members. Two other important points are made: There is considerable apprehension in the donor community that some proposals may be given voice in the new Congress which raise the possibility of major cut-backs in US aid and even a turning away by the US from the common effort for development which it inspired over 30 years ago. The second important point: The US has accumulated substantial arrears both to the U.N. system and to be the multilateral concessional financing facilities, due to Congressional reluctance to approve the necessary appropriations.”